Chapter 61: The Demon

Sanji and Gin trade blows that land nowhere decisive, each finding the other a perfect match. Watching from the deck, the Krieg crew assumes their commander will fold, yet Don Krieg insists the opposite. He paints Gin as a cool, merciless killer, a reputation that earned him the title of The Demon and the role of leading the armada into battle. Worn down by his earlier clash with Pearl, Sanji slowly loses ground, and the Baratie cooks led by Patty grow anxious.

Across the way, Luffy goes after Krieg directly, but the armored captain refuses an honest brawl. He sheds his armor and hurls bombs and spears, one of which pins Luffy's foot and nearly drops him into the sea. Krieg sneers that winning means killing, calling Luffy a thoughtless monkey for charging in without a plan. Meanwhile Gin batters Sanji repeatedly, snapping bone and dragging him toward death as the pirates celebrate.

The standoff between Sanji and Gin is settled not by strength but by conscience. Poised to deliver the killing strike, Gin freezes, remembering the meal Sanji once gave a starving enemy. Tears overtake him. He confesses that he cannot strike down the only person who ever treated him with kindness, breaking from the role of the unfeeling killer his captain prized.

The color spread opens the chapter with the Straw Hats helping giant squids gather daikon, Usopp and Luffy clowning around with a wheelbarrow while Nami dozes over a book. When the chapter first ran in Weekly Shonen Jump, its opening story page was printed in full color. The installment sits within the Baratie arc.